Sharon Stahl,
takes pride in students' accomplishments
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Sharon Stahl, takes pride in students' accomplishments |
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The
Body Can Speak: Essays on Creative Movement
Education With Emphasis on Dance and
Drama (Southern Illinois University Press)
The following is extracted from her essay "A Teacher Remembers (New Beginning in America)," which recalls her more than three decades at Washington University: "It was curiosity and my love for dance that brought me to America, the cradle of modern dance. I had performed as a dancer all over Europe with renowned companies such as the State Opera of Berlin and the municipal theaters of Dusseldorf and Darmstadt, toured with the Kurt Jooss Dance Theater, and soloed with my own dances. By the time I had accomplished all this, I was more than ready to explore the dance scene in America. I wanted to see for myself how America had developed while the arts of Europe were almost destroyed during a most devastating war. "I took the first opportunity offered me and landed in Chicago in the mid-1950s, not knowing anyone there in my profession. Talking to people, I quickly discovered that a few had heard about Martha Graham but that they hardly knew the American art form called modern dance or the great artists associated with it. This was quite a blow to my great expectations. The majority of people thought I was speaking about ballroom dance. . . "When I arrived [at Washington University] in January 1957, I found a small but pleasant dance studio with a bouncy floor. . .in the women's physical education department. Unfortunately, the studio was partitioned from the swimming pool, separated from it by only a thin wall that was. . .not soundproofed. A smaller sidewall extended only halfway to the ceiling. On the other side were several hair dryers. When the dryers were in use, their noise forced people to converse loudly, which was not very helpful to me trying to teach on the other side. Finally after several years, the wall with the hair dryers was closed, and I came to an agreement with the department that no synchronized swimming would be scheduled during my dance classes. . . " Mertz will read from The Body Can Speak at 7 p.m. Sept. 5 at Left Bank Books. |
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